What's a Good First Credit Card to Sign up for Flight Rewards?

xrailgun on 14/04/2019 - 12:29
Last edited 14/04/2019 - 12:40 by 1 other user

Long timer OzBargainer, first time applying for a CC, completely mind boggled. It's a brand new world and I need to call in the professionals!

Some of the more promising ones I've sussed out:

Qantas Premier Platinum
Qantas Premier Everyday
Qantas AMEX
Virgin Money Flyer
Westpac Altitude Platinum
Suncorp Clear Options Are Suncorp Reward points good value?? Don't see it discussed often (at all).
ANZ FF Black
ANZ FF Plat
David Jones AMEX

That's a huge range of annual fees, but IMO, it's fine if the rewards more than compensate for the increased fees. Feel free to suggest others!

A little bit about me:

Pre-tax income > 80k,
Usually 2 international round-trips per year, with my spouse (that's 4 trips total, would be great if I could share my rewards/redeemable flights), no domestic flights
Brisbane based (I see some lounge benefits only usable in Sydney/Melbourne >:()
Going to use it like a debit card so interest rates don't matter
Overseas transactions taken care of by a Macquarie debit card (no overseas fees)
Typical monthly spends ~$1k excluding rent and utilities, around about $50 of which goes to cosmetics stuff at DJ/Myers (not sure if their reward points are even worth considering?)
Rent and utilities also ~$1k, but not sure which of these can be paid with CCs
Will probably switch once a year to take advantage of sign up bonuses and reduced 1st yr fees. Not ready to get into professional churning yet.

So what do you guys think? Esp w regards to Velocity vs Qantas points for international flights?

• 

  jacktator on 14/04/2019 - 14:30

  +8

  First of all, you need to figure out which alliance you'd likely to fly with?

  That is, where are you flying, and what airline alliance (One World, Star Alliance, Sky Team) takes you there?

  E.g. I go to Shanghai a lot
  One-World: Qantas takes me there. Or I can take JAL from Sydney to Tokyo then Tokyo to Shanghai
  Star Alliance: Singapore airline: Sydney - Singapore - Shanghai
  SkyTeam: None

  So I would only be looking at oneworld or star alliance.

  Secondly, you need to decide on the program to accumulate.

  E.g. Qantas? Velocity? Asia Miles? KrisFlyer? or?

  A quick comparison:
  Qantas: More Award tickets, easier to earn, but a ticket requires more QFF points than AM miles. Hub: Sydney
  Asia Miles: Little Award tickets, not too hard to earn, but requires less points than Qantas. Hub: Hong Kong
  KrisFlyer: Good Award tickets, not too hard to earn, requires more points but lots of promotions. Hub: Singapore

  After consideration, I've decided to mainly accumulate Asia Miles and KrisFlyer.

  Finally, figure out which card can earn you most points.

  Points mainly come from Signup bonus or Big Spending.

  Sign up bonus

  I signed up with Amex Explorer (100k) & Amex Edge (30k) with signup bonus totalling 130k points, which got me two return business tickets from Sydney to Singapore and 20k points left.
  Some cards have better offers, so it's worth waiting. E.g. I got my Westpac Altitude Black bundle with 120k Qantas points and Zero annual fee. Might be worth it to wait for the offer.

  Earn rate

  Best earning cards for AM & KrisFlyer are Amex Edge (3pts per dollar at supermarkets) , Amex Explorer (2pts per dollar at supermarkets) , Amex Platinum (3pts per dollar at restaurants).

  In conclusion, generally Amex offers the best reward credit cards, and they are being accepted at more and more places. I'd be mastering Amex cards before looking at others.

  PS, Big rewards changes (devaluation) tomorrow 15th April 2019. Please keep in mind.

  • 

    xrailgun on 14/04/2019 - 15:46

    Thank you for the detailed write-up!

    Firstly…

    I previously didn't know about the alliances, I thought Qantas points was just Qantas and no others.

    So checking through my frequent flights (Various cities in China, Singapore, and USA) on this site, Star Alliance covers the most bases.

    Secondly..

    I got lost here. I checked out Velocity and Asia Miles, and the Airline partners from Star Alliance are split up among those 2.

    Also, Singapore Airlines is a Velocity's partner, but you mentioned to specifically accumulate KrisFlyer points. Wouldn't Velocity points be more flexible? Or are Velocity points worth less so if you're set on SIA, it'd be better to directly earn KF points?

    Could you please explain the interaction between the choice of alliance and choice of points? seems like a mish mash.

    Points

    Looks like the vast majority of points will come from sign up bonus, so that'd be the main factor.

    Devaluation

    I've read a lot about this, but most discussion is around current users to convert existing points away. Will this devaluation affect a newcomer's choice?

    • 

      jacktator on 14/04/2019 - 16:59

      +2

      Secondly

      KrisFlyer belongs to Singapore Airline, a Star Alliance member. You can use it to redeem almost any Star Alliance Award tickets.
      You can convert 1.55 Velocity to 1 KrisFlyer, or 1.55 KrisFlyer to 1 Velocity. Why would anyone take this lose-lose conversion? Well, KrisFlyer expires in 3 years since accumulation, if you haven't used it, you can to convert to VA to keep the points from expiring.
      KrisFlyer is pretty generous with Award Tickets.

      Good part about KrisFlyer is that, when you book a return flight, you can add a Stopover.
      E.g. If you fly Sydney - Singapore - Shanghai and return to Sydney, you can Stopover at Singapore and enjoy a few days there. Visiting 2 cities with 1 return ticket.

      Velocity Virgin Australia does not belong to any Alliance, but due to its partnership with Singapore Airline and Virgin Atlantic you can get away with lots of places.
      Velocity does not expire as long as you earn or use them. You can buy a $2 chocolate from BP Gas station to earn Velocity to keep it from expiring

      Between Velocity and KrisFlyer, I choose KrisFlyer.

      Asia Miles Belongs to OneWorld. So you can book Qantas, JAL, British Airways, and many more with it, subject to award ticket availability. Asia Miles also partners with Cathay Dragon and Air China, which has lots of flights inter-China.
      Asia miles is not great its searching, their website is slow, their award ticket is scarce, overall it's a pain in the back. But it's cheaper and more flexible.

      There are mainly two ways to play with AM.
      1. You can utilize StopOvers and OpenJaw for return flights. I could be wrong but from memory, you can use 1 StopOver and 1 OpenJaw for return flights. So e.g.
      Sydney -> KUL (StopOver and visit Malaysia) -> Shanghai, then
      Shanghai -> Tokyo (OpenJaw and visit Japan, then) Osaka -> Sydney.
      Visiting many cities and many countries with 1 return ticket.
      2. Round the world redemption
      This is very advanced, and need to search a lot. But basically it's what the name suggests.

      I like Asia Miles for its great value, but coming up with a redemption is a pain in the back.

      Points

      Do not over-skill, signing up too many credit cards for signup bonuses will tank your credit score, and your future credit card/home loan application. Generally speaking, do not apply more than one card every 3 months. YMMV.

      Devaluation

      No. Newcomer's all good. But you need to consider, when all existing user transfer their MRs away to AM or KrisFlyer, what is AM and KrisFlyer going to do if there're too many points on the market? KrisFlyer devalued twice in the last 2 years. Asia Miles once last year. So you need to keep those in mind too.

      • 

        xrailgun on 15/04/2019 - 21:20

        Ok so it looks like waiting for the Westpac AMEX is the best choice here.

        Do you know if there are equivalents or near-equivalents for other points? e.g. Velocity, AM, KF?

        • 

          jacktator on 15/04/2019 - 22:07

          +2

          @xrailgun: In terms of flexibility, AM and KF are the best, hence more valuable.
          In terms of easiness to earn, Qantas is the easiest, hence less valuable.
          TPG Valuation and PointHacks Valuation.

          I know BA (British Airways) is pretty good for domestic flights redemption, if you play it right. Check this out.
          I heard UA is pretty good too until they announced dynamic pricing for award ticket few days ago.

          PS, The points game can quickly become very time consuming. While saving money on business class tickets, you'll be spending a lot of time searching. End of day, it only makes sense to redeem Business, but then do you really need to travel all-business?
          Even with the help of points, You are, at the end of the day, buying a more expensive product, if you usually travel Economy.
          Might also be a good idea to use that time to acquire some other skills that actually generates income.

          • 

            xrailgun on 15/04/2019 - 22:14

            @jacktator: Yeah, I get what you mean, will feel my way around after getting the first card.

            Previously, I was asking if there were credit card sign on bonuses on a similar tier as that Westpac AMEX black deal, which appears to be "THE" once-a-year deal if you want Qantas. Are there such deals worth waiting for for AM, KF, Velocity etc?

            • 

              jacktator on 15/04/2019 - 22:33

              +1

              @xrailgun: Here's some worthy Current and Historical promotions for your reference. There may be more.

              Qantas Only

              Qantas points a pretty exclusive, a card can either earn Qantas directly, or other points.

              Westpac Altitude Black Bundle 120k with 0 first year annual fee
              Amex Qantas Ultimate 100k with $395 annual fee
              ANZ Frequent Flyer Black 100k with $224 first year annual fee
              NAB 100k with $295 first year annual fee
              St George 80k with $0 first year annual fee

              Velocity Only

              Amex Velocity Platinum 100k with $375 annual fee, offset by one domestic return flight

              Velocity, AM + KF

              Amex Explorer 75k~100k with $395 annual fee, offset by $400 travel credit
              Amex Edge 50k with $195 annual fee, offset by $200 travel credit
              St George 50k with $0 first year annual fee

              I've made a Spreadsheet comparing each signup bonus and calculating their value, if interested I can post it online.

              • 

                xrailgun on 16/04/2019 - 20:17

                @jacktator: Thank you so much! You've really gone above and beyond in helping a stranger.

                Please do share the spreadsheet, it'll be a huge benefit to ozbargainers :)

• 

  xrailgun on 16/04/2019 - 20:17

  accidental repost, can't seem to delete this comment